Category: Social Emotional Learning

Dear Parents,

Your child brought home their report cards today. I thoroughly enjoyed my first time writing report cards like this as it is quite different at other schools because it included their own reflections on how they are doing in the areas of work habits and attitude, personal awareness and responsibility, and social awareness and responsibility. I also thought it was unique approach to write it directly to my students rather than traditionally, about them. It makes it much more of a personal document that focuses on their strengths and ending with next steps. Each of them had an opportunity to read over their report cards and sign them. You may be used to receiving an extra sheet called an Overview. This was a document that outlined what was covered over the course of the term. Since you have been informed frequently each week on our class blog, please refer to our past blog posts for this information and refer to our We Are Learners pages for the curricular competencies that were covered.

On Monday, I introduced the idea of having “focus students” as an opportunity for them to share something about themselves, a chance to formally speak to the class to develop their communication and presentation skills, and to have regularly scheduled individual teacher time. This is not to say that they do not receive teacher time during other days. Here is the schedule:

If your child’s day lands on a holiday or a Pro-D day, their turn will be the next day. For example, Eva and Kiana’s day is supposed to be tomorrow but instead, will be on Monday, November 25. Since we did not begin “Focus Students” until Tuesday, Ana and Alex will also be on Mon. Nov. 25. For our first time, students were asked to bring an artifact to share and talk about. They are to include details including thoughts and feelings. During their teacher time, we have reviewed their progress and set goals for their public speaking skills as well as how they are doing as a listener. I have also listened to them read and provided direct feedback including reading strategies that will help them progress, and we reviewed their goals in reading. As we move along, the focus each week may be different but every other week, your child will have an opportunity to speak in front of classmates. The feedback they receive will inform them of their strengths (so they maintain them) and their areas of opportunity (so they know what to work on to improve).

Also new on Monday, response journals were introduced. A response journal is a type of writing where students make connections to what they read (text to text, text to self, or text to world). Their sheet of paper is divided into half. On the left-side, they record a summary of “What happened” and on the right-side, they record “My thinking”. Here, they not only practice the important skill of summarization, they have an opportunity to respond to text as they are encouraged to question, analyze, relate, respond, and interpret to gain new understandings or at least that is where we are headed!

Starting on Tuesday, we saw our first sets of focus students come up to share. It is not easy to be one of the first but they presented very well. As an audience, we are working on the skill of listening by looking at the speaker, being engaged by absorbing their message in our hearts and minds, and responding by asking pertinent questions afterwards. I have enjoyed learning more about each student already and am looking forward to the rest!

We returned to our book The 7 Habits of Happy Kids to learn about two more concepts. As a review, here are the first three habits covered so far:

1. Be Proactive – Take initiative. You’re in charge!
2. Begin with the End in Mind – Focus on goals and have a plan!
3. Put First Things First – Work first, then play!
4. Think Win-Win – Everyone can win!
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood – Listen before you speak!

Click here to learn more about the 7 habits we will be learning about.

During our Reading time, students were introduced to a new app called Voice Record Pro [Free app to download]. It’s a basic app that allows them to record their voice. They practiced their reading and then recorded a reading sample and uploaded it to OneDrive. We will be looking for growth over time.

We have been working with Ms. Tas every Wednesday afternoon in our classroom. We noticed that some were overusing apostrophes or placing them incorrectly so based on the common errors we are seeing in student’s writing, we had a couple lessons on the proper use of quotation marks for contractions and possessive nouns. Again, based on the students’ inexperience with using quotation marks, our focus this time was on proper use of quotation marks – why we need them, where they go, and where we place commas and question marks within a quotation. Students were partnered up randomly and worked well with each other as they put the words together with punctuation to form a complete sentence. Once done, they rotated to a different station with a new sentence to put together. They loved the hands-on learning experience! They also enjoyed seeing their own names used in these sentences.

Students had an important lesson on digital citizenship today as we discussed the allure of the internet. Information can be at our fingertips within seconds but we need to learn to exercise our self-control, decision making, and critical thinking skills. With opportunities, these skills can be developed over time as they grow and learn to be discerning critical thinkers who make good decisions about what they search, how to decipher whether it is true, and what sites are trustworthy, for example. It is natural for children this age to be curious about many things. The internet offers many opportunities to learn. However, as much as there is good information, there is also negative, harmful, and false information available. Over time, they will learn that what we see on the internet is not all true. Ultimately, one of our goals is that their integrity will stand up so they will make good decisions about how they access and use the information available at their fingertips.

LOOKING AHEAD

Guest speaker: On Monday, we have arranged for a dental hygienist to come for a classroom visit to teach us about taking care of our teeth.

Thursday: Young People’s Concert & World Ringette Championship game. Thank you to the parents of Kyle, Max, Liliana, Lucas L., and Yunsoo for volunteering to drive! We appreciate you.

Yoga: Next Friday, November 29th, we will begin our first of three yoga sessions with Ms. Gomes. Please have your child wear comfortable clothes and to bring a water bottle. Thank you to Jillian, Brentwood Park PAC and executives in supporting the yoga program. The most important aspect of yoga for children and families are:

• self care
• mindful breathing
• body awareness
• positive thinking
• honour and respect for oneself, others and nature

School Blanket Drive at Brentwood Park: Please support. We are collecting gently used or new blankets or sleeping bags, warm clothing, coats, hats, gloves, scarves, new socks and underwear. Click here for more details.

Report card envelopes: Please sign and return your child’s report card envelope next Monday. Thank you.

Hello families,

We have continued to have new experiences and new learning this week. We learned about our brain and how much it grows in the first ten years of our lives and why new or novel experiences are important to our brain’s development.

MONDAY: Our gym time emphasized moving around in the gym safely being mindful of our bodies as we navigated the larger space. In class, we regularly have movement breaks where we dance to music, do jumping jacks, burpees, or hold a plank for as long as we can; their repertoire of exercises will continue to grow over time. Students seem to enjoy these energized moments to help them reset and increase the oxygen in our brain for further learning.

TUESDAY: We did a team building activity called Ha, Ha, Ha. We all stood in a circle. The one person in the middle tried to make others smile. Once they smiled, they joined the person in the middle to try to get others to smile until almost the whole class was in the middle! We learned how smiles were so contagious and it didn’t take very long before they were all in the middle. They asked to play it again!

We read a book called Your Fantastic Elastic Brain and learned about the different parts of our brain, how it can be stretched, and how important it is to us. Click here to read reflections written by Lucas L. and Steven. Feel free to watch the book:

We had an important lesson on Digital Citizenship. We learned about being really mindful of what we say to others online and to THINK before we post anything. This acronym is great for all of us to think about even before we speak to others face-to-face, isn’t it?

Microsoft Office 365 was introduced. Students quickly learned how to log in to Teams and to find their assignment about describing themselves. This online platform will allow me to support your child’s writing in an augmented way. Students will be given the opportunity to revisit, revise, and revise their work again often after mini-lessons or receiving descriptive feedback. As well, they will be offered options to collaborate with classmates on future projects. Using Office 365 provides students with knowledge and experience that will support all aspects of our revised curriculum’s core competencies: communication and collaboration skills, creative thinking as well as critical and reflective thinking, personal awareness and responsibility, positive cultural and cultural identity, and social awareness and responsibility. To learn more about our Core Competencies, click here.

If your child does not have a set of earbuds with a volume control and a mini microphone, please send to school at your earliest convenience. There is no need to purchase an expensive one; I have seen some at a dollar store. I do have some large headphones students can use. This offers them the ability to listen to their own work privately as well as record their voice without picking up the classroom’s ambient noise.

FRIDAY: We will be going to Young People’s Concert at Michael J. Fox Theatre. All students have been asked to arrive at 8:45 AM. The bus will be leaving promptly at 9:05 AM. Thank you for your cooperation.

FOOD BANK: Our school initiative is to Scare Hunger by donating non-perishable food. The goal for each class is to collect enough to fill two boxes. Please continue to bring food in. Thank you for your generosity!

BOWLING: If you have not yet returned the form and paid for bowling, please do so as soon as possible. If you need another form to fill out (or need details), please click here to print out a copy or simply write a note in the planner giving your consent and record the online payment confirmation number. I am still looking for one more parent volunteer to walk with us to Revs, please. Thank you.

SCHOLASTIC: Orders are due on Saturday, October 12 at noon. To learn how to place an order online, click here. If you need the flyers sent home again, please let me know.

INSIDE SHOES: If your child does not have a pair of inside shoes, please send. With the beauty of our west coast weather, it really helps in keeping our classroom space cleaner. It is also more comfortable for your child to wear runners than heavy boots all day. Thank you.

Finally, our class is complete with our last two students joining us this week. Welcome to our class, twins!

Here were the daily tweets for the week with additional information:

Click on image to learn more about the book.

MONDAY: Staff had a great day diving into our new school goal of writing. We started our day reviewing our social emotional goal with Jillian. There was excitement about maintaining an existing goal and taking on a new one.

TUESDAY: Read The Orange Shirt Story. During our discussion, students quickly came to realize how fortunate they are. It seemed to hit them when thinking about what it might be like to be away from their families for 300 consecutive days during the school year. Although Phyllis only spent one year in a residential school, many other children spent many more years away from their families. It was really quite difficult for them to fathom but I believe they understood why it is important to acknowledge Orange Shirt Day. To learn a little more, click here to read recent CBC article.

Click here to read reflections written by Kiana and Lucas C.

WEDNESDAY: Theme of the day – Trust. Started day with car and driver team building game. In partners, students in front were cars with eyes closed. Students in back drove car around room being careful and mindful not to drive too fast or to crash their vehicles! Great discussion about trust. End of day, learning about solids and matter. Ultimate trust to hold nail while partner hammers!

In Science, we continued our learning about matter to include the three states: solid, liquid, and gas. We all tried hammering a nail, comparing a bottle with air and then a bottle with water in it. Students were amazed at the enormous number of atoms or molecules in just one drop of water. Can you guess how many? Answer is at the bottom of this post.

THURSDAY: Being friendly can be taught. Team building activity: practiced just waving at our partner, then waving & smiling, then waving, smiling & saying hi, then waving, smiling, saying hi & their name. Last bit, created a special handshake. Move to new partner to do the same. Smiles and fun had by all! All smiling was good practice for our individual photos later in the morning!

FRIDAY: Partners used a deck of cards to make random numbers to compare smaller/larger numbers (like war but with 3-4 cards each). Same practice on a worksheet? Yes but so much more engaging and fun to learn together to practice not just a number sense concept but communication and social skills. Students recorded their number comparisons in their Math notebooks. To learn more about our new Math unit on Number Sense, the learning outcomes, and ways to support at home, click here.

We met with our buddy class for the first time in Mr. Jung’s grade 6/7 class. Students enjoyed getting to know their buddies by playing card games and reading with them.

Important Dates:

• Friday, October 11 – Young People’s Concert – bus leaves for Michael J. Fox Theatre at 9:00am
• Friday, October 11 – Scholastic and Revs Bowling permission slips are due
• Monday, October 14 – Thanksgiving; school closed

Answer: It turns out there are over 1.5 sextillion molecules in a drop of water and more than 5 sextillion atoms per droplet. That’s 1 500 000 000 000 000 000 000 or 5 000 000 000 000 000 000 000, respectively in one single drop of water!

Dear families,

We have had another fantastic week getting to know each other better, learning how doing small things make a difference to others and our community, how having perseverance and a growth mindset helps us overcome obstacles, how we need to be brave sometimes to step out of our comfort zone, and how using our cooperation and group work skills lead to great effective partnerships. All of our activities are followed by reflections on our experiences – some verbal and some written.

“We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.” – John Dewey

To give you a glimpse into some activities, here are the tweets I posted this past week with some extra comments:

MONDAY: Got to know each other better with inside outside circles. Ex “I can…” statements: I can listen to other people when they are talking. I can share my own ideas and speak clearly. I can give the gift of attention. Students noticed how communication improved with repetition. To learn more about Inside Outside circles, click here. 

We also learned about comfort zones and how being in our “Stretch Zone” is most ideal for learning and personal development. When asked, this was a new concept for all of them. We discussed how it is important to get out of our comfort zone and how they will be gently pushed into their stretch zones for various areas like critical and creative thinking, communication skills, personal and social/emotional development, for example.

TUESDAY: “The key to creating or transforming community, then, is to see the power in the small but important elements of being with others.” -Peter Block. We used yarn to create a spider web. Students took turns to share an example of a small yet simple act that would make someone’s day brighter. #Interconnected

I asked one person to shake the yarn in the web (which represents one kind act) then asked another to do same and another until all did so they can see the positive effect of each small kind act for building community. Then we did the opposite. Doesn’t take much if one person does or says one negative thing to affect all in the community. #PowerfulVisual 

Click here to check out Isaac and Yunsoo’s reflections on our spider web activity!

WEDNESDAY: Class community coming together wonderfully. Each day, we have 1-2 community building activities. Today, we got to know each other better by finding commonalities using @poppletny. All shared an appreciation for why partnership worked well. Ex: took turns, shared ideas, cooperated, laughed with me.

We also wrote a reflection after our final tennis lesson. Click here to read Eva and Liliana’s reflections!

THURSDAY: A simple thing but offering choice makes quite a difference to some students. Used these picture prompts. Used Milling to Music strategy for many opportunities to share story ideas first. I can tell we are going to have a blast writing creative stories this year! To learn more about Milling to Music, click here.

We started our day taking turns to share appreciations for each other and those in our school community. Read a book called Louder, Lili about finding your own voice and being courageous to speak up.

FRIDAY: Talked about importance of brain breaks. Had tons of fun playing a version of rock, paper, scissors but instead bear (roar with hands up like claws), salmon (bloop bloop with hands together like a fish), mosquito (bzzz with two index fingers together). Start by saying hi and name first. Stand back to back. Count 3-2-1, turn to face, action plus sound. Then find a new partner. Check out podcast to learn more examples of brain breaks.

Notes for Parents

Donations: Please continue to collect donations for the Terry Fox foundation. On Thursday, September 26th, we will have a Celebration of Learning and our Terry Fox run will follow. Please have your child dress appropriately for the weather. They are encouraged to bring a water bottle.

Earbuds: Please send earbuds with a microphone to school in a labelled Ziploc sandwich bag. It generally has a volume control with a little small hole on the back; that’s the mic. The microphone will help your child record their learning without picking up ambient noise in the classroom. You may find it at a dollar store. No need to buy an expensive pair. Thank you.

Shoes: Send a pair of inside shoes, please.